


Between Her Arms

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-19 04:42:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16527587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: This wasn't at all how Mal had pictured it. The left side of her face bruised with red and black, the jagged cut down her lips bloody and angry, eye swollen and blackened as she peered at it in the mirror. Dragon scales were tough, but it seemed the bark and bite of a vengeful sea witch was tougher. Not at all how Mal pictured it. When she pictured dancing with Evie, really dancing with Evie, they were both beautiful and radiant, two gorgeous pieces of a fairytale come to life.Not a beauty and her beast. If Mal were on The Isle, she would have delighted in scaring children away with her torn and battered features. But she wasn't on The Isle, she was in Auradon.And Evie awaited.





	Between Her Arms

**Author's Note:**

> A sunken cotillion and a salvaged dance to Ed Sheeran's "Perfect". From an anonymous request on tumblr.

When Mal ran off to The Isle, it felt like the first moment she had to herself in six whole months. No one telling her what to wear, how to act, when to smile and curtsy and when to stay quiet and pretty. The first moment she was actually able to  _think_  for herself. So she thought. Long and hard with a can of spray paint in hand, safe in her old hideout, about so many deep things she never imagined she’d find herself thinking about. And when Ben came to bring her home, and tenderly told her he loved her, Mal couldn’t say it back. Partly because she didn’t for a second believe him. Partly because love was only for the free of heart.  
  
And Mal’s heart already belonged to another.   
  
One who looked absolutely stunning clad in sparkling sapphire blue that night, but was doomed to share an evening with Mal’s haggard and worse-for-the-wear appearance. Mal hadn’t even wanted to go in the first place. After being dragged back to Auradon Prep, the last thing she wanted was to show up at cotillion with a hundred pairs of eyes on her, a hundred or more classmates knowing she was there anxiously skirting around her  _ex._  No, in any other situation, Mal wouldn’t have even been at cotillion to begin with.  
  
But Evie had asked her to be.  
  
Evie, who Mal’s one and only goodbye note was written to. An  _“Evie, I am so sorry”_  scratched out in blue before Mal’s tears blurred her eyes and she couldn’t bring herself to write anything more. Evie, who with one glance at Mal’s familiar handwriting had singlehandedly mounted a search and rescue and braved the horrors of The Isle to bring her back. Evie, who Mal’s heart wept in relief for when they came together in song atop their island hideout and finally,  _finally,_  Mal realized what her head had been screaming at her for so incredibly long.  
  
Evie asked her to come to cotillion. Not officially in a date capacity, but…just so they could be there with each other. And for a little while, they were. Mal wasn’t up for dancing then, not in her blue and yellow dress glaring the colors of Auradon and school pride, two things she hadn’t been feeling the love for as of late. But Evie didn’t mind. Evie didn’t even try her hand at conversation. It was the first time in her life she’d ever been relegated to wallflower at a party, and Mal hated herself for dragging her best friend down, but Evie really didn’t seem to mind. Just standing at Mal’s side, she was content.  
  
And then Uma arrived. Sucker-fished to Ben’s side with the king sporting a glazed look in his eyes that Mal was all too familiar with. Mal hadn’t wanted to fight; she’d had a long day, was exhausted, and really rather emotionally drained. She didn’t want to fight when Uma’s purloined enchantment used Ben to try and free the villains from the magic barrier and wreak havoc on all of Auradon. She didn’t even want to fight when Uma took to the sea in a fabulously wicked impression of her mother with definite plans to capsize cotillion. But when Uma’s cruel tentacles whipped over the ship’s railing and struck just a little too close to Evie, knocking her off her feet and into the pool of water flooding the deck…then, Mal tasted fire.  
  
The acrid burn of smoke and ash in her throat, heat searing inside and out from blood to skin and everything in between. She remembered it only in bits and pieces, as if blacking out in her fury. Wings, claws, tentacles, waves. Fire and water clashing in scalding steam, sea air whipping past a face that wasn’t really her face, a face sporting razor fangs and slitted eyes. Bits and pieces, all of it, like flashes of a dream.  
  
And like a dream, everything began again when Mal opened her eyes. So many faces looking down at her with so many different expressions that it was really rather overwhelming. Awe, wonder, fear, disgust, glee. So many faces were looking down at her when she opened her eyes, but Mal was only looking up at one. Evie’s. She was in Evie’s arms, and Evie’s face was the only one in the crowd expressing pure, unadulterated relief. Mal didn’t question why she was suddenly in a dress more her speed of deep purple and magenta, only one question slipped past her busted lip on the whisper of a hoarse voice— _“…Did I win?”_  
  
Evie laughed. Looked like she was about to cry, but laughed all the same. So did a few of the faces around her, not that Mal was concerned with them.  
  
She had won indeed. Driven Uma back to The Isle, broken the spell over Ben in doing so, and saved cotillion and everyone on deck from a watery grave. Then retired below deck herself to miserably fixate on her reflection in a bathroom mirror.  
  
She didn’t know how much time she’d lost staring and glaring at herself, fighting back tears all the while at how horrible she looked now. This wasn’t at all how Mal had pictured it. Maybe she hadn’t quite been up to dancing, but still she was guilty of idly imagining it. She and Evie hand in hand, holding one another close, lost in each other’s eyes as the softest of songs played on around them and starlight twinkled above. As if any of that would happen now. A beauty and her beast, that’s what Evie and Mal would look like up there on the soaked dancefloor. Not a night to remember, but a night to desperately try and forget. That was what truly brought the tears to Mal’s eyes as the blackened one throbbed painfully—the “almost” in the air. She  _almost_  could’ve made it perfect. It  _almost_ could’ve beena magical night.  
  
Mal was  _almost_  beautiful.  
  
The knocking at the bathroom door was jarring to her senses, even as the knocking itself was something soft and gentle.  
  
“…Mal?”  
  
Something even softer and gentler. Evie’s voice, close to the door. Mal hearing the quiet thing perfectly as the music stopped above deck.  
  
“…Mal, cotillion’s almost over. They’ll be playing the last dance soon.”  
  
Mal didn’t know what to say. She didn’t know what Evie  _wanted_  her to say.  
  
“…M, I was really looking forward to a dance with you tonight. But you  _just_  broke up with Ben, and you’ve got so much weighing on your mind and your heart that I…I didn’t want to push.”  
  
Mal’s vision was a wet, hot blur. It was a miracle she found the door handle in her blind grab for it.  
  
“Why would you want to dance with  _me?!”_  she demanded, voice shaking as she threw the bathroom door open and stood there for all to see.  
  
All being Evie, the only one who cared enough to venture below deck in a search for Mal. Evie wasn’t looking at the discolored bruises, the torn lips, the black eye—Evie was simply looking at Mal.  
  
“…Because the three days you were gone were the longest of my life,” Evie told her, shaky as she remembered the ordeal. “And there was a point where I thought you would never come back, and that I’d somehow have to learn to get along without you. But you’re  _here,_  Mal, you’re back home…I thought a dance would be the perfect way to celebrate.”  
  
“I don’t deserve to dance with you, E. You are  _breathtaking,_  and I’m…how would everyone look at us?”  
  
“I don’t particularly care, Mal. Haven’t the people of Auradon done enough gawking already?”  
  
“…This is Auradon. Enough is never enough,” Mal said miserably.  
  
Evie pressed a palm to Mal’s cheek, carefully and tenderly running her thumb along Mal’s hurt lips.  
  
“…I told you to be proud of all your scars, because they make you who you are,” Evie said. “Have you forgotten that already?”  
  
Mal didn’t say a thing, so Evie continued.  
  
“You think this is the face of…what? A hideous girl? No, Mal. It’s the face of the girl who just risked her life to save all of Auradon. And if I’m the only one who sees that, then it’s Auradon’s loss. I think you look perfect, M. And I would very much like to have this last dance with you.”  
  
Evie lowered her hand from Mal’s face before offering it to her, the red leather of her evening glove rather soft to the touch.  
  
“…Well, I’ve been a terrible date so far tonight. I suppose I really should make it up to you.”  
  
Mal reached out for the hand, but Evie promptly pulled it away as if playing some sort of teasing game.  
  
“You’ve already put yourself down enough on Ben’s behalf. Don’t start putting yourself down for me. Please,” Evie said, a terrible sadness shining in her eyes.  
  
Mal didn’t even realize how naturally putting herself down had been coming to her until Evie’s words. All of a sudden, it felt like there was something more frightening than the picture of her twisted face in the mirror’s reflection—the picture of what being with Ben had done to her.  
  
“…I’m sorry. I guess putting myself down was just always the only way I could make Ben look good. You know, because the king’s girlfriend gets the fun job of doubling as his PR agent,” Mal said bitterly.  
  
Evie smiled in contrast to Mal’s bitterness, something warm and gentle that lit her face up like the glow of the moonlight.  
  
“Well that’s just it, Mal. I don’t need anyone’s help to make myself look good.”  
  
Boy, was that ever the truth. For the first time that entire night, Mal was finally beset by a smile too. Shy, small, barely breaking free, but a smile nonetheless.  
  
“Well then…shall we?” now Mal tentatively offered her hand.  
  
Evie took it without hesitation.  
  
“We shall.”  
  
Back above deck they went, where the lights were dimmed and the moon reflected even brighter in the sheen of water left behind from the fight with Uma.   
  
The eyes were on her the very moment she and Evie set foot on deck, arm in arm. The flat-out gawking had run its course—for a little while, at least—but now Auradon Prep watched her with subtle, sneaking stares, side-eyed glances. Gawking or glancing, Mal honestly didn’t know which one was worse. Either way, her heart sunk. Any semblance of a smile faded away entirely. She knew that no one there was looking at just “Mal”. They were looking at Mal, the runaway. Mal, the dragon. Mal, the girl who’d just split up with her boyfriend yet was stepping out with Evie only three days later.  
  
Mal, the girl who was just as ugly and battered on the inside as she was on the outside. So much for the pretty pink princess, the lady of the court.  
  
She was very careful to keep her head ducked down and turned away when she could, staring emptily down at her feet as she and Evie moved along the deck. Hiding her face. Saving Evie from the embarrassing stares. Mal would never forgive herself for doing this to her.  
  
They made their way over to the ship’s railing as they waited for the last song to start, staring out into the now-calm waters that twinkled under starlight as if faceted with diamonds.  
  
“…Mal, if anyone’s going to be apologizing tonight, maybe it should be me,” Evie quietly began. “I know this has been a rough few days for you, I know it’s been a rough  _six months_  for you. I shouldn’t have pressured you into coming to cotillion with me, I just—”  
  
“You didn’t pressure me,” Mal quickly disagreed, shaking her head and startled to hear Evie feeling guilty over such a thing. “You asked me to come, and I said yes. Nobody made me. You said you wanted to be with me…and I wanted to be with you too.”  
  
“…I meant it in more ways than one, you know,” Evie admitted. “But with Ben—”  
  
“Ben is over and done with,” Mal again shook her head. “He was…only a fairytale, E. Something I thought I needed, something I got swept up in. Girl meets boy, happily ever after. I thought he made me happy, but in reality he only made me a little less sad. Turns out there’s a big difference.”  
  
“…When you put it like that, I guess there is,” Evie said thoughtfully.  
  
“But, you know, when you said you wanted to be with me tonight, that was before I looked like  _this,”_  Mal sighed heavily.  
  
Evie leaned over, leaned close, her lips just grazing the shell of Mal’s ear.  
  
“…You are  _beautiful,”_  she whispered.  
  
Mal shivered, whether from the tickle of Evie so close or Evie’s words alone, she wasn’t sure.  
  
“…I used to know that,” Mal sadly realized.  
  
But that seemed like such a long time ago now. Long before the months of being told to dress better, act better, smile more and pretty up her hair with a nice platinum blonde instead of a wild Isle purple. Long before her opinion of herself had soured when it seemed that despite all her intentions, she just wasn’t good enough.  
  
“I used to know I was beautiful,” Mal murmured. “I guess I’ve just forgotten how.”  
  
Evie took her once more by the hand, lacing their fingers together as she stepped away from the railing and slowly started for the middle of the dancefloor.  
  
“…Then let me teach you again,” she said easily.  
  
Eyes still followed them out across the deck, but Evie paid them no mind, keeping her head held high. There was no music yet, but Evie gave Mal a playful twirl anyway, spinning her into her arms.  
  
“…Wow,” Evie breathed.  
  
“What??” Mal nervously asked.  
  
Evie calmed her right away, her touch tucking a curly strand of that wild Isle purple she loved behind Mal’s ear.  
  
“…I’ve just waited a really long time to hold you like this,” Evie said. “…Did Uma get you anywhere? Should I be careful?”  
  
She studiously ran her hands down Mal’s sides.  
  
“…No, E. Hold me as tight as you want.”  
  
Well, Evie certainly took her up on that.  
  
 _“I found a love…for me…”_  
  
The music started over the speakers, the last song of the night softly swilling on the strum of guitar strings.  
  
 _“Darling, just dive right in…and follow my lead.”_  
  
Hand in hand with Mal, holding her gingerly around the waist, a beautiful song playing and the two of them just easily swaying back and forth on their feet…Evie intended to remember this night forever.   
  
 _“Well I found a girl…beautiful and sweet.”_  
  
Evie and Mal looked right into one another’s eyes just then, each of them sure the song lyric meant the other. Mal was Evie’s beautiful and sweet girl. Evie was everything Mal knew to be beautiful and sweet. Evie flashed a smile when she caught Mal continuing to stare, seemingly lost in her presence.  
  
 _“I never knew you were the someone waiting for me…”_  
  
 _“‘Cause we were just kids when we fell in love…not knowing what it was.”_  
  
The two of them were moving as one around the deck, feet sloshing through the water and not a care to be had. Mal hadn’t fallen in love with Ben after six months together—was it possible for her to fall in love with Evie over the course of a single dance? It most certainly felt like it, with Evie pressed so close that Mal almost swore she could feel her best friend’s heartbeat against her own chest. The space between, that was what the pair had sang about back in their island hideout, what their voices sang to each other and what their hearts promised together. Ironic how at any given moment there always seemed to be very little space between them.  
  
 _“I will not give you up this time.”_  
  
 _“But darling, just kiss me slow…your heart is all I own.”_  
  
 _“And in your eyes you’re holding mine…”_  
  
Mal’s heart belonged to Evie. That was the revelation she had come to when Ben’s  _“I love you”_ fell on deaf ears up there with the two of them alone in the villain kids’ hideout, for when she and  _Evie_  found themselves alone in the villain kids’ hideout, it was an entirely different story. When they sang together, thought back on all that they’d been through, when Mal was nestled in Evie’s arms after their voices had quieted…it was as if she never wanted to be anywhere else.  
  
 _“Baby I’m…dancing in the dark, with you between my arms.”_  
  
 _“Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song.”_  
  
 _“When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath…but you heard it, darling you look perfect…tonight.”_  
  
It seemed like a song written solely for the two of them as they glided back and forth in their dance, a sweet melody taking the place of lyrics as one chorus melded into the next.  
  
“…You told me that I was an Auradon girl. And that you would always be the girl from The Isle,” Evie softly said, almost a whisper as she held Mal close. “You said it like that somehow made you less, like I was so much more than you’d ever be.”  
  
“…That’s what it felt like to me,” Mal sorrowfully admitted.  
  
“…Then tell me why you’re my everything, Mal.”  
  
Mal’s heart genuinely skipped a beat when she looked into Evie’s eyes, glistening and shining as if from tears.  
  
“Tell me why I would’ve given up the Auradon girl in a second to stay on The Isle and be with you,” Evie went on.  
  
“…Because you are the most amazing girl I’ve ever known, and there’s no possible way I’ll ever deserve you,” Mal’s voice cracked on tears of her own, the heat welling up painfully behind her eyes.  
  
Evie tightened her hold around Mal’s waist and did what she did best in her best friend’s lasting moments of self-doubt—sang.  
  
 _“Baby I’m…dancing in the dark, with you between my arms,”_  Evie’s enchanting voice gently hummed in Mal’s ear.  _“Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song. When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath…but you heard it, darling you look perfect…tonight.”  
_  
There again were the shudders and shivers running down Mal’s spine, still unsure whether Evie’s closeness or her voice were to blame. And suddenly, Mal forgot all about what eyes were on her, and what she looked like in them. Evie’s deep, loving eyes were the only ones that mattered, and in Evie’s eyes, Mal was perfect.  
  
 _“Baby I’m…dancing in the dark, with you between my arms.”  
  
“Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song.”_  
  
The music was surely meant only for Mal and Evie as it played on, as surely no other couple on the dancefloor was pressed as close and holding one another as longingly as Mal and Evie, every word drifting from the speakers resounding in their hearts.  
  
 _“When I saw you in that dress, looking so beautiful, I don’t deserve this…darling you look perfect tonight.”_  
  
“Who did you have to bribe to get to pick out the last song of the evening?” Mal wondered with a teasing smirk, not caring about the way it twisted her battered lips.  
  
“I didn’t pick this, Mal,” Evie laughed softly, so relieved to see Mal in a teasing mood. “This song somehow playing for us after everything we’ve been through tonight…it’s just magic.”  
  
“…There seems to be a lot of that whenever I’m with you.”  
  
Mal closed her eyes and laid her head on Evie’s shoulder, her skin warm and soft underneath her while the music flowed around the two like the wisp of a spring breeze.  
  
A shame the moon would never know how blessed it was to bear witness to such a sight, of two best friends turning into lovers beneath its very rays.  
  
“…Mal?”  
  
Nestled and nuzzled into the crook of her best friend’s neck, Mal could feel Evie’s pulse quickening.  
  
“Hm?” she hummed, feeling weightless, not a care in the world.  
  
“…Can I kiss you?”  
  
The moment was crying out for it, desperately and longingly. It was the perfect scene for a first kiss; a moonlit night, two hearts beating as one, a slow and dreamy dance along a ship’s shining deck. The moment was perfect for it, there was no need to ask.  
  
So of course Evie had asked.  
  
Mal lifted her head, her answer bright and clear in her half-lidded eyes and her blissful gaze lost in an impossible dreamland.  
  
“…Yes,” she breathed.  
  
As if there were any question about it.  
  
So Evie slowed her dancing feet to a standstill, and Mal along with her, but never for a second did either of them entertain any ideas of letting each other go.  
  
And oh, how the world seemed to utterly stop when they kissed.  
  
When Evie’s tender yet passionate lips pressed so very carefully against Mal’s bruised ones, when Evie tasted sun-kissed strawberries and Mal swore she could taste raspberry. When their breath came out shaky and tickled one another’s lips as both were amazed that it really happened, that the moon just watched an unspoken love bloom mightily to life. Mal’s next breath shook from holding back a flood of tears, tears as Evie cupped her face and gifted a kiss to every bruise, every jagged cut, every inch of black ringing Mal’s eye.  
  
 _“I have faith in what I see, now I know I have met an angel in person…and she looks perfect…”_  
  
 _“I don’t deserve this…you look perfect…tonight.”_  
  
“Evie…” Mal bit her lip to keep it from quivering, squeezed her eyes shut tight to keep the stinging tears from falling.  
  
Turned out it was entirely possible to fall in love with Evie over the course of a single dance. Maybe the yearning swell in her heart was proof that she’d fallen in love with her long before cotillion. The song was over, but still it echoed in their ears, whispering its truths and emotions to them over and over again.  
  
“Mal…”   
  
Evie’s mesmerized touch delicately traced the patchwork of Mal’s bruises, and Mal found herself leaning into the touch, not flinching away.  
  
“I’m not blind, Mal. I know what I see when I look at you…the most beautiful and perfect girl in all the world.”  
  
Mal’s eyes opened, blinking furiously until Evie’s fingertips brushed those tears away.  
  
“…Then what does that make you?” Mal wondered.  
  
“…Very lucky.”  
  
And very in love. But Evie was sure Mal wasn’t ready to hear that just yet. Even if Mal felt it too, even if deep down she knew it, hearing it slip past Evie’s lips in three small words was something else entirely. Something that would have to wait until wounds both physical and emotional had properly healed. And that was perfectly alright. For the night had already claimed a kiss, a kiss after a dance under moonbeams and starlight. Evie didn’t know what sort of night would claim their declaration of love, but she didn’t really need to know. As long as she had Mal, and Mal had her, there was no doubt in her mind as to what it would be.  
  
Already Mal was picturing it, the night she could hold Evie in her arms the way Evie was holding her now, and already, she knew. Mal wouldn’t need a gorgeous dress and perfect curls of purple, a flawless face dolled up with lipstick and blush on the night she and Evie admitted a very obvious love with the whispering of three small words. They wouldn’t need a lavish cotillion under moonbeams and starlight to mark the occasion. All they needed was each other, lost in each other’s eyes and locked in one another’s embrace. As long as they were together, Mal knew exactly what such a moment would be.  
  
Perfect. 


End file.
